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House GOP doesn't get to demand ransom: Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama renewed his call for Congress to end the partial government shutdown on Tuesday, demanding that House Republicans "end their obsession" with his signature health-care law and vote to re-open the government.

Obama said he was willing to "sit down and talk about anything" with his opponents. However, he insisted the GOP was "threatening to crash the global economy" by leaving the government shuttered for an eighth consecutive day.

Obama said he told House Speaker John Boehner in a phone call that he would not hold talks under the threat of a debt default or of keeping the government shut.

He remains hopeful that Congress will not put his administration in the position of having to consider prioritizing debt payments in the event of a federal debt default. The U.S. has a lot of debt obligations beyond paying its Treasury bond holders and that the government's failure to pay other bills would also hurt U.S. creditworthiness, Obama said.

"What people ignore is ultimately what are the people who are buying Treasury bills think?" he added.